Updated Details of the American Airlines Fleet

I’ve created a table with the current active American Airlines mainline fleet, which consists of 945 aircraft. You can see how many seats are in each aircraft type, and how many of each type they have in service. The table is accurate as of today.

There are (3) types of Boeing 737s listed in the table, for instance.

You’ll see that one is the 737 MAX, and that has the airline’s latest interior (big bins, satellite wifi, more and thinner seats, smaller lavatories and no seat back video).

The 737-800 is American’s existing 737 configuration. These have 160 seats (up from 150 before the merger) and haven’t yet been converted to have 172.

737-800 (Oasis) indicates 737-800s that have been converted from 160 seats to 172, which means tighter seating (even in Main Cabin Extra and first class) and match the interiors of the 737 MAX.

Boeing 737 MAX Interior

Similarly there are two configurations of Boeing 787-8s, one which takes out 8 business class seats and adds premium economy (there’s only one active in the fleet so far) and a version that doesn’t yet have premium economy.

Active includes planes that are currently in the process of being retrofit. In the chart below “LAA” refers to pre-merger American Airlines aircraft and “LUS” refers to pre-merger US Airways aircraft.

While American Airlines remains the only U.S. carrier offering a first class cabin, there’s just 330 seats. So while I love their First Dining rooms inside Flagship Lounges at New York JFK, Los Angeles, and Miami there simply aren’t very many passengers with access to those. (At New York JFK Cathay Pacific first class passengers have access as well.)

The real action though — what most people experience by far — is economy. So while much attention is paid to premium business class passengers (less so domestic first), and there’s a real focus on getting coach passengers to ‘buy up’ to premium economy internationally at — the airline says — double the price, it’s a real mistake to neglect the economy cabin completely. According to American’s joint venture partner British Airways, 25% of a customer buying decisions are based on brand rather than schedule or price.

More From View from the Wing

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

@Gary and @Hotintx, I second that. I appreciate the analysis and the summary. Gary, I know this is a lot of effort but if you have staff or time to do the same for Delta and United and provide meaningful comparisons analysis – that would make it a lot more interesting for all of us (not just AA and I see that you personally have a bit more history with AA and tend to write about it more). For one, since there are only a handful of “first class” seats on AA – which routes is the first class available on AA, what about Delta and United? And which routes do not have any premium cabin? Could we see more about that on your blog?

Agreed this is very valuable info – thanks for preparing! I’d also be interested in seeing how this compares to Delta’s fleet as I am considering switching after 2019. Would be interesting to see how many seats they are squeezing into economy versus AA, and also the number of premium seats in each plane to try to somewhat gauge upgrade likelihood versus AA’s premium seat availability – particularly on long haul int’l.

On a flight from DFW to ORD on Monday. I had booked in “mini first class”:cabin., Good thing I had flown in early from MIA as gate changed for my Chicago bound flight was changed and I had decided to get a new boarding pass with new gate on it. good thing I did as gate agent at check in told me my seat no longer existed as there was equip change. She didn’t understand why as it was still showing 787. I knew the reason – it was the redone 787 with the new seat configuration. No first in mini on that particular aircraft. There was one seat available in front section in first and she grabbed it for me. There were others who were supposed to be in “first” in the mini cabin who were very unhappy at the gate when their seats no longer existed. (The aircraft change and gate change happened about 1.5 hours before boarding – moving from Gate A to D — where the AA club is under construction.) My 3rd time on a 787 and still not happy with the seats, though the window seats seem to have more “open” feeling. My flight from MIA to DFW was the new 777. Great first class. Not looking forward to my 737 flights as they could change to the dreaded M plane.

While American Airlines remains the only U.S. carrier offering a first class cabin, there’s (sic) just 330 seats.”

The only “true First Class” seats are on long-haul flights that have three cabins: First, Business (usually booked in J), and Coach. Long-haul domestic transcontinental flights (LAX/SFO—JFK) that have three cabins call the front premium cabins First Class too, which are “true” First Class seats (known as Flagship First). Domestic flights mostly only have two cabins, though: First (also booked in J) and Coach. The same two-cabin aircraft will call its premium cabin First when traveling domestically, but it will become Business when traveling internationally: both are booked in J.

Why not always call seats booked in J Business Class?

It looks like UA said farewell to its Polaris First at the end of August 2018. DL offers Coach, Comfort +, First, and Delta One for transcontinental. They also offer Coach, Premium Select, and Delta One on long haul international flights. Is their Delta One not comparable to AA’s international long haul First Class?

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.

Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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